genetic engineering – Quanta Magazine

Why Do We Get Old, and Can Aging Be Reversed?

Steven Strogatz — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 20:46:37 +0000

Everybody gets older, although not everyone ages in the same way. For many people, late life includes a deterioration of health brought on by age-related disease. Yet there are also people who retain a more youthful vigor, and around the world, women typically live longer than men. Why is that? In this episode, Steven Strogatz speaks with Judith Campisi and Dena Dubal...

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Nobel Chemistry Prize Awarded for CRISPR ‘Genetic Scissors’

Jordana Cepelewicz — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 10:02:59 +0000

A humbling lesson of science is that, even when it comes to many of humanity’s most brilliant inventions, nature got there first. The 2020 selection for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to two scientists who share credit for identifying and developing a revolutionary method of genome editing — one that has allowed researchers to modify and investigate the genomes of microbial...

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Doudna’s Confidence in CRISPR’s Research Potential Burns Bright

Vanessa Schipani — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 15:50:50 +0000

No one needs to remind Jennifer Doudna about the power of CRISPR, the precision genome-editing technology she codeveloped. CRISPR “gives us a way to ultimately control the evolution of any organism — including ourselves. It is a profound thing. Human beings have now learned enough about our own genetic code that we can change it at will,” she said. “It’s kind of crazy to think about.

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Genetic Engineering to Clash With Evolution

Brooke Borel — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 16:34:17 +0000

In a crowded auditorium at New York’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in August, Philipp Messer, a population geneticist at Cornell University, took the stage to discuss a powerful and controversial new application for genetic engineering: gene drives. Gene drives can force a trait through a population, defying the usual rules of inheritance. A specific trait ordinarily has a 50-50 chance of being...

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New Letters Added to the Genetic Alphabet

Emily Singer — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 15:30:32 +0000

DNA stores our genetic code in an elegant double helix. But some argue that this elegance is overrated. “DNA as a molecule has many things wrong with it,” said Steven Benner, an organic chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Florida. Nearly 30 years ago, Benner sketched out better versions of both DNA and its chemical cousin RNA, adding new letters and other additions that...

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